1 Maccabees is a book written in Hebrew by a Jewish author after the restoration of an independent
Jewish kingdom, about the latter part of the 2nd century BC. The original Hebrew is lost and the most important surviving version is the Greek translation contained in the
Septuagint. The book is held as
canonical scripture by the
Catholic,
Orthodox, and
Oriental Orthodox churches (except for the
Orthodox Tewahedo), but not by Anglican and
Protestant denominations. Such Protestants consider it to be an
apocryphal book (see also
Deuterocanon). In modern-day
Judaism, the book is often of great historical interest, but has no official religious status.